New sustainability measurement methodology developed by the Value Balancing Alliance successfully tested for the first time
Frankfurt. The Value Balancing Alliance announces results from its first piloting, cooperates with the World Economic Forum (WEF), and welcomes four new members.
First piloting to measure sustainability: successful use of the methodology in eleven companies
What impact do companies have on society? How can these value contributions be made measurable and comparable in balance sheet terms? The Value Balancing Alliance, founded in 2019, set out to answer these questions. In recent months, the Value Balancing Alliance has successfully piloted its Methodology 0.1 in eleven companies from seven industries.
The focus was on the impact companies have on society. The first piloting is an important step towards a standardized methodology for impact analysis across all industries. Above all, it has shown that the methodology can be used successfully with reasonable effort and how the long-term value contribution of companies can be compared.
In the following months, the methodology will be further developed and refined. Therefore, the Value Balancing Alliance will collaborate with other stakeholders such as the European Commission and the OECD. In order to become even more significant for all business models, the integration of additional social indicators and the downstream impacts of production will take place, among other things. In the second half of 2021, the Value Balancing Alliance will present further results on this (Methodology 0.2). In addition, the Value Balancing Alliance will further advance the alignment of terminologies between financial accounting standards and national accounting systems. Christian Heller, Chairman of the Value Balancing Alliance, said, "With the first pilot, we learned how robust and powerful the methodology can be for everyday business decisions and disclosures. We are very optimistic about the second pilot. It will take us a big step closer to developing a cohesive and applicable methodology."
Cooperation with the World Economic Forum
Around the world, intensive work is being done on sustainable reporting that can take into account and report the environmental, social and economic impacts of companies. The International Business Council of the World Economic Forum and the Value Balancing Alliance jointly support this project. Both initiatives have now agreed to cooperate in order to standardize methods for measuring sustainability and to further develop them together with other stakeholders. Christian Heller: "The cooperation with the World Economic Forum brings us a big step closer to our goal – global cooperation to standardize the measurement of sustainability. In this way, we are turning companies into real change-makers for a more sustainable future."
The Value Balancing Alliance continues to grow
With the addition of South Korea's Shinhan Financial Group, Germany's ZF Group and Sana Kliniken AG, and France's Michelin Group, the alliance increased its membership to now 21 in the first quarter of 2021. As a result, the Value Balancing Alliance and its member companies now represent around 2.55 million employees and sales of nearly €1,300 billion.
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